Monday, March 30, 2015

I am thankful for a good weekend in the GTA. It was great to see 60% of our children and 80% of our grandchildren, as well as our old mother and some siblings. It was a blessing to preach at Bethel Toronto and make some new friends. Bonus was that we got to go to a young lady's birthday party! Oh, the surprising joys of the ministry! The Bethel congregation was gracious, attentive, and friendly--as always.

On Saturday I was able to attend the office bearers' conference at Ebenezer Burlington where Dr. Cornelis Van Dam delivered an excellent speech on the situation of our Dutch sister churches and about how we need to be both patient and vigilant here in North America. I was glad to learn that his speech will soon be published, and I hope many will read it. His speech made me thankful for our seminary, CRTS. By the grace of God we continue to have a full complement of professors who are top drawer scholars and orthodox men who humbly bow before the Word of God, unimpeachable and trustworthy in every respect. This is not to be taken for granted.

Final Monday-morning thought is related to Classis Ontario West's overture to Regional Synod East to amend Article 14 of the Belgic Confession. One can read many opinions on the interweb about it, and I am not inclined to add my thoughts. I only want to observe that we probably do not pray enough (in our homes and churches) for our scientists. They are faced with questions that many of us seldom ask. Vocally to deny evolution theory could spell the quick demise of career. I pray that God may be with our scientists and doctors who are doing important work in teaching and research, all-the-while seeking faithfully and honestly to integrate the Reformed Christian faith and science. May God bless them!

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

As we were reading through the book of Deuteronomy, we read Moses' blessings upon the tribes and I did a comparison with Jacob's blessings upon his sons. I made a little grid. I 'm not sure what I'll do with it. In 1965 Oosterbaan & Le Cointre published J.G. Meijer's two volume work, Ieder Een Eigen Zegen ("Each his own Blessing"). Perhaps Deuteronomy 33 calls for something similar. In the mean time, the two sets of blessings are interesting to compare.

Jacob,
Genesis 49

Moses,
Deuteronomy 33

“Reuben, you aremy firstborn,my might, and
thefirstfruits of my strength,preeminent in
dignity and preeminent in power.
4 Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence,because youwent up to your father's bed;then you
defiled it—he went up to my couch!

“Let Reuben live, and not die,
but let his men be few.”

5 “Simeon and Levi are brothers;
weapons of violence are their swords.

6 Let
my soul come not into their council;

O
my glory, be not joined to their company.

For in
their anger they killed men,

and
in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.

7 Cursed
be their anger, for it is fierce,

and
their wrath, for it is cruel!

I
will divide them in Jacob

and
scatter them in Israel.

“Give
to Levi[h] your
Thummim,
and your Urim to your godly one,
whom you tested at Massah,
with whom you quarreled at the waters of Meribah;9 who said of his father and mother,
‘I regard them not’;
he disowned his brothers
and ignored his children.
For they observed your word
and kept your covenant.10 They shall teach Jacob your rules
and Israel your law;
they shall put incense before you
and whole burnt offerings on your altar.11 Bless, O Lord,
his substance,
and accept the work of his hands;
crush the loins of his adversaries,
of those who hate him, that they rise not again.”

(Simeon
missing)

8 “Judah, your
brothers shall praise you;
your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
your father's sons shall bow down before you.9 Judah is a lion's cub;
from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He stooped down; he crouched as a lion
and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;[a]
and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.11 Binding his foal to the vine
and his donkey's colt to the choice vine,
he has washed his garments in wine
and his vesture in the blood of grapes.12 His eyes are darker than wine,
and his teeth whiter than milk.

“Hear,
O Lord, the voice of Judah,
and bring him in to his people.
With your hands contend[g] for
him,
and be a help against his adversaries.”

13 “Zebulun
shall dwell at the shore of the sea;
he shall become a haven for ships,
and his border shall be at Sidon.

“Rejoice,
Zebulun, in your going out,
and Issachar, in your tents.19 They shall call peoples to their mountain;
there they offer right sacrifices;
for they draw from the abundance of the seas
and the hidden treasures of the sand.”

14 “Issachar is a strong donkey,
crouching between the sheepfolds.[b]15 He saw that a resting place was good,
and that the land was pleasant,
so he bowed his shoulder to bear,
and became a servant at forced labor.

For Issachar, see Zebulun

16 “Dan
shall judge his people
as one of the tribes of Israel.17 Dan shall be a serpent in the way,
a viper by the path,
that bites the horse's heels
so that his rider falls backward.18 I wait for your salvation, O Lord.

“Blessed
be he who enlarges Gad!
Gad crouches like a lion;
he tears off arm and scalp.21 He chose the best of the land for himself,
for there a commander's portion was reserved;
and he came with the heads of the people,
with Israel he executed the justice of the Lord,
and his judgments for Israel.”

20 “Asher's
food shall be rich,
and he shall yield royal delicacies.

“Most
blessed of sons be Asher;
let him be the favorite of his brothers,
and let him dip his foot in oil.25 Your bars shall be iron and bronze,
and as your days, so shall your strength be.

21 “Naphtali is a doe let loose
that bears beautiful fawns.

“O Naphtali, sated with favor,
and full of the blessing of the Lord,
possess the lake[l] and
the south.”

22 “Joseph
is a fruitful bough,
a fruitful bough by a spring;
his branches run over the wall.[e]23 The archers bitterly attacked him,
shot at him, and harassed him severely,24 yet his bow remained unmoved;
his arms[f] were
made agile
by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob
(from there is the Shepherd,[g] the
Stone of Israel),25 by the God of your father who will help you,
by the Almighty[h] who
will bless you
with blessings of heaven above,
blessings of the deep that crouches beneath,
blessings of the breasts and of the womb.26 The blessings of your father
are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents,
up to the bounties of the everlasting hills.[i]
May they be on the head of Joseph,
and on the brow of him who was set apart from his
brothers.

“Blessed
by the Lord be his [Joseph’s] land,

with the choicest gifts of heaven above,[j]
and of the deep that crouches beneath,14 with the choicest fruits of the sun
and the rich yield of the months,15 with the finest produce of the ancient mountains
and the abundance of the everlasting hills,16 with the best gifts of the earth and its
fullness
and the favor of him who dwells in the bush.
May these rest on the head of Joseph,
on the pate of him who is prince among his brothers.17 A firstborn bull[k]—he has
majesty,
and his horns are the horns of a wild ox;
with them he shall gore the peoples,
all of them, to the ends of the earth;
they are the ten thousands of Ephraim,
and they are the thousands of Manasseh.”

27 “Benjamin
is a ravenous wolf,
in the morning devouring the prey
and at evening dividing the spoil.”

The
beloved of the Lord [Benjamin] dwells in safety.
The High God[i] surrounds
him all day long,
and dwells between his shoulders.”